NEA Awards Grants to Six Berkshire Cultural Organizations

The grants were announced by new NEA chair, Rocco Landesman.

Both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) have completed a new round of funding. The NEA has selected six organizations in the Berkshires, while the NEH looked, but came up empty.

As might be expected, large, well known Berkshire based organizations like Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow and The Clark Art Institute were among those blessed, and so was the feisty Barrington Stage Company - for its Musical Theatre Lab project. It runs each summer under the watchful eye of composer William Finn (he of Spelling Bee fame).

But two smaller, literary organizations were also selected, the Orion Society based in Great Barrington, and the Tupelo Press, recently arrived in North Adams and headquartered at the Eclipse Mill. While the Berkshires have long been home to visual and performing artists, the tradition of literary lights living here is also well established, going back to Herman Melville whose home in Pittsfield was named Arrowhead and Nathaniel Hawthorne who had a small cottage in Lenox.

The NEA grants were made under the Access to Artistic Excellence program and chosen from more than 1,600 applications. Access grants "support the creation and presentation of work in the disciplines of dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literature, media arts, museums, music, musical theater, opera, presenting, theater, and visual arts."

Here is a summary of the six grants made in the Berkshires:

The workshopped Calvin Berger is typical of the Musical Theatre Lab's best work. Top left to right - Michael Perreca (Other Stages Producer), Justin Paul (Musical Director) and Stephen Terrell (Director and Choreographer); Bottom row l-r: The Cast of Calvin Berger - Aaron Tveit, Elizabeth Lundberg, David Perlman and Gillian Goldberg. Photo by Charlie Siedenburg.

Barrington Stage Company Inc.
Pittsfield, MA. 
$25,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Musical Theater
. To support the Musical Theatre Lab. The program provides emerging composers, lyricists, and book writers the opportunity to develop new works of musical theater in a supportive environment with an experienced management team.

In talking to Artistic Director Julianne Boyd about the Musical Theatre Lab, she noted that quite a few musicals and performers got their start there. The 2007 musical Burnt Part Boys gets produced in New York this Spring. And in Summer 2010, Nikos Tsakalakos and Janet Allard musical Pool Boy (first workshopped by BSC last summer) will get a fully staged production.

Earlier, the musical workshop of Calvin Berger brought Aaron Tveit to the public's attention, and he "got his equity card through that show," she noted. Tveit has since gone on to become much in demand in American musical theatre, being featured in Next to Normal which went from Arena Stage to Broadway, and assuming the Leonardo DiCaprio role in the new musical Catch Me If You Can which is in preparation for Broadway.

Each summer, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket becomes the world's center of contemporary dance.

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Inc., 
Becket, MA. 
$90,000 
CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
. To support residencies and performances of dance companies. The project will include a Creative Development Residency, presentation of national and international dance companies, and audience engagement and educational programs.

The BSO's Contemporary Music program takes place at Tanglewood in Lenox/Stockbridge. Ozawa Hall is the concert hall used for these concerts, and it too opens to their glorious lawn.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. (on behalf of Tanglewood Music Center)
 Boston, MA. 
$45,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence.   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music. 
To support the Festival of Contemporary Music at the Tanglewood Music Center. The 70th anniversary festival will honor the resident composers who have led composition activities for the festival over the past seven decades.

Orion Magazine is at the junction of art, science, politics and the environment. It serves as an intellectual, spiritual and discussion center for the conservation movement.

Orion Society
, Great Barrington, MA. 
$15,000 
CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature. 
To support feature-length pieces of literary prose in Orion magazine. A bi-monthly literary and visual arts journal devoted to exploring the relationship between people and the natural world, the magazine currently has 20,000 subscribers.

The Clark Art Institute may be battling over expansion with their NIMBY neighbors in Williamstown, but its role as the steward for the world's greatest art has never been challenged.

Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, 
Williamstown, MA. 
$75,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum. 
To support the exhibition Picasso/Degas, with accompanying catalogue and education programs. The exhibition is being organized in association with the Museu Picasso in Barcelona.

Tupelo Press publishes innovative, unpredictable and visceral poetry by authors such as the young luminary Larissa Szporluk's. Her Embryos and Idiots is sly, seductive and spare.

Tupelo Press, Inc.
, North Adams, MA
. $25,000
 CATEGORY: Access to Artistic Excellence.   FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature
. To support the publication and promotion of new collections of poetry and international literature. Proposed authors include Gary Soto, Ellen Doré Watson, Michael Chitwood, Megan Snyder-Camp, Rebecca Dunham, and Stacey Waite.

Magical Camelot at the Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT

The cast of Camelot celebrates the lusty month of May. Diane Sobolewski photos.

Lerner and Loewe's glorious musical Camelot is more than one brief shining moment on stage, it is an evening of magical musical theatre, a total delight for the senses. At the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut the musical has many charms, from the moment of Guenevere's arrival, to the final message of King Arthur about his Knights of the Round Table. Here is a summary of my full review and slide show which appear in Berkshire Fine Arts.

Marissa McGowan and Mollie Vogt-Welch in Goodspeed Musicals CAMELOT. Photo by Diane Sobolewski.
Directed with a sure hand and clear vision by Rob Ruggiero, the musical's book has a reputation as being a bit unwieldy, but someone has done some judicious editing, pruning and possibly even a little rewriting. It's an improvement. The actor-singers are all first rate, and in a last minute substitution, I was fortunate to have been able to see the incredible Marissa McGowan in the role of Guenevere, rather than Erin Davie. McGowan blew me away, and was very faithful to the role as I remember it from the first production which I saw in 1960 at the Colonial Theatre In Boston. That starred Julie Andrews, Richard Burton, Robert Goulet and Roddy McDowell.

Loyalties are tested between Lancelot (Maxime de Toledo) and King Arthur (Bradley Dean) in Camelot at the Goodspeed. Photo by Diane Sobolewski

Of course, comparisons are inevitable, even almost half a century later. So here goes. McGowan was every bit as good as Julie Andrews. Their voices are similar. When I closed my eyes, Bradley Dean seemed to be channeling Richard Burton and made an equally impressive King Arthur. However, Maxime de Toledo as Lancelot didn't remind me of Robert Goulet at all. He is much taller, louder and, well, cavalier. He exudes self assurance while Goulet was more vulnerable. Adam Shonkwiler as Mordrid made his character downright sinister, while Roddy McDowell only played himself. He never did have much range.

As Mordred, Adam Shonkwiler's Seven Deadly Virtues tickles wickedly in Goodspeed's CAMELOT. Photo by Diane Sobolewski.
In you take in a performance, you will likely notice the incredible sound the small pit band of just eight pieces creates using new arrangements by Dan DeLange. His choice of instrumentation is as much a work of genius as the music of Lerner and Loewe.

King Arthur (Bradlley Dean) and Merlyn (Herman Peters) begin the quest for right in Camelot at the Goodspeed. Photo by Diane Sobolewski

A short rant: Watching and listening to the video below will help you understand why I felt disappointed this summer at Barrington Stage's otherwise delightful Carousel and Berkshire Theatre Festival's well done Candide. Both companies substituted twin pianos for the usual pit bands in their productions. Even with twenty fingers, the sound is thin. But even that disappointment pales in comparison to those oozy second-rate, phony synthesizers gumming up things at the Mac Hayden Theater in nearby New York State. They are an insult to the composers whose creations are the heart and soul of the form. Musicals should be, must be, musical, not some bargain basement knockoff.

With Tanglewood so near, and music lovers flocking to the area, serving up second rate music in these productions will eventually backfire. Local theater companies cut budgets this year in response to economic realities, but don't be surprised if we see reputations and audiences decline as a result. I am not the only one who has felt cheated of the full experience one is supposed to get at a musical. Thank goodness for the new arrangements the Colonial Theatre has made with C-R Productions and the Cohoes Music Hall. Their production of The Producers last June provided a pit band, the only one in the long Summer Theater Season in the Berkshires.

The video was produced by the Goodspeed prior to opening night.

The trip to East Hadam took 2.5 hours from North Adams, and can be cut to 1.5 hours from south county. It is well worth the trip. If the weather is pleasant, you might want to take a picnic supper. The Goodspeed has set up picnic tables along the banks of the Connecticut River where they are located, and it makes for a nice break after the drive, and before the theatre.

The Goodspeed Opera House is on the Connecticut River with adjacent picnic grounds.
For more information and tickets, visit Goodspeed Musicals for details. You can also call the Box Office at 860.873.8668. Be sure to plan ahead. The wonderful old Victorian theater on the third floor of the landmarked building only has 398 seats which often sell out to the locals. There is an elevator. Don't miss the mini patio for drinks and a splendid view of the river.

Half Price Tickets in Berkshires, MA

There are four half price ticket buying locations in the Berkshires


Even in our lightly populated Berkshires, there is so much going on that we have developed three half-price ticketing operations which have offerings ranging from Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow and Barrington Stage Company to Shakespeare and Company and the Berkshire and Williamstown Theatre Festivals.. The four locations are in Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Adams and Chatham, NY.

This past summer I detailed its operation and hours for Berkshire Fine Arts. You can read it here: Half Price Tickets in the Berkshires article